POINT OF VIEW

‘WE NEED TO WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE THE ENERGY TRANSITION A SUCCESS’

TENNET IS WORKING WITH TU DELFT ON A SUSTAINABLE ELECTRICITY GRID

Tennet has an important role to play in the energy transition. The company faces some major challenges. To develop new innovations, the European grid operator is working with TU Delft in the recently opened Electrical Sustainable Power (ESP) Lab, where the electricity grid is being readied for the future. Maarten Abbenhuis, chief operating officer (COO) at Tennet, was closely involved in the development of this unique research and testing facility.

Text: Jurjen Slump R evolutionary. This is how Abbenhuis (himself an alumnus, who studied systems engineering, policy analysis and management in the 1990s) describes what has happened in the last decade. The existing high-voltage network dates from the 1960s and had considerable overcapacity until recently. However, the last decade has seen a ‘huge shift’ take place from the generation of energy using coal and gas towards solar and wind power. “All of these renewable energy sources have to be connected to our network.”

Things are getting tight. There have been several recent reports in the newspapers that new wind turbines, solar fields and other renewable projects cannot be connected to the network because of a lack of capacity. “In Drenthe, there is a lot of low-cost land available for new solar farms and wind turbines, but our highvoltage network has only limited capacity there”, says Abbenhuis, highlighting one of the many challenges.

INVESTMENT PROGRAMME

Not only is supply increasing, demand is also set to rise. “That means that we have to improve the capacity of our network in order to be able to match demand and supply at any time of day.” That calls for a ‘dynamic’ network, because the amount of energy generated by wind and the sun varies significantly compared to coalfired and gas-fired power plants, for example. All kinds of different technological issues are involved in this.

Tennet has set up a major investment programme intended to cope with the increasing demand and supply of renewable energy. The year 2020 saw investments to the tune of € 3.4 billion and that will soon increase to around 5 to 6 billion a year.

The most important challenge faced by Tennet involves integrating the different speeds with which these developments are happening. Any new government policy takes time to bed in, the construction of new infrastructure has already accelerated and, finally, there is the ‘superfast’ increase in renewable energy. “The main challenge will be in ensuring that we converge all these different speeds. One way of achieving it will be through innovation, which is why we are so proud to be a partner of the ESP Lab.”

“It would be great if we could structure the system in such a way as to ensure that electricity consumption moves in line with availability”

Maarten Abbenhuis

ELECTROLYSERS, HEAT PUMPS AND SOLAR PANELS

All of Tennet’s statutory duties – transport services, system services and facilitating the market – can be simulated in the lab, using hardware and software. That opens up unique opportunities for developing integrated solutions for the energy system. “Put in concrete terms: how will 150 electrolysers for the production of hydrogen effect our network? Or, think of the millions of heat pumps, solar panels and electric vehicles that will be connected in the years ahead. How will the system react to them? How can we cope with this as effectively as possible with the existing infrastructure? You can model all of that perfectly in the ESP Lab.” Another example: what will happen to the European network if all of the wind suddenly drops? How do you downscale wind farms when necessary, for example for maintenance? “In situations like that, you need flexibility. That’s also something we can research effectively in the ESP Lab.”

VERITABLE TEMPLE OF SUSTAINABILITY In the ESP Lab, the Dutch electricity grid is being readied for the future. Three lines of research have an important role to play in this process: Photovoltaics, Power Electronics and Digital Technologies. In all of these areas, innovation is happening across the board: from generation, conversion, transport, distribution and storage through to the use of (green) electricity and from innovative hardware to smart algorithms.

SUPPLY-DRIVEN

Abbenhuis continues: “It would be great if we could structure the system in such a way as to ensure that electricity consumption moves in line with availability. When there’s a lot of wind, industry could up the tempo a little. When there’s less wind, we can scale things down. Envisaging the practical implications of that is something we can very effectively simulate in the new lab.” There is also the issue of the market: how will all of this green energy be bought and sold? New market concepts can also be developed in the ESP Lab, together with academics from the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management.

The same applies to software and data. The Lab is home to the Control Room of the Future (see page 26). “There has been a huge increase in the amount of operational data. But how do we use that data in a way that also benefits us? All of these issues make for very interesting research projects.”

What makes the lab unique is that it enables Tennet to develop and test innovations and applications without the end user being affected. “What matters most is security of supply. We need to do all the maintenance and updates on the grid while it’s in use. That means